Top performers from Harvest Prep Holiday Hoopfest

<p>The Harvest Prep Holiday Hoopfest brought some of the top central Ohio teams to Harvest Preparatory school for a full day of action. In this article I’ll be breaking down the top performers from the event.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="921747" first="Brandon" last="McLaughlin"], 6’8 C Heath 2022: Despite taking their first loss of the season in this one, I walked away impressed with McLaughlin. He made a ton of plays with his left hand, between skip passes and layup finishes. McLaughlin was aggressive in the paint and used his height advantage to get some easy buckets, including an impressive dunk. Malone Head Coach Casey Kaufman was on hand and should be excited with what McLaughlin brings next season.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1225047" first="Charlie" last="Russell"], 6’4 PF Bishop Ready 2023: A couple Ready players were considered for the top performers list, but I decided to highlight Russell after his impressive outing. Russell dunked around a Heath defender in the most athletic play I’ve seen him make. With Russell and Kaleb Schafer, Ready has a nice forward duo that works well together. Ready’s offense runs some pretty advanced sets for a high school team and Russell is a key piece around the basket in a lot of these sets. You can tell Ready is well coached and a majority of their key players have high basketball IQ’s.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="848282" first="Jayden" last="Nervis"], 6’5 PF Hilliard Davidson 2022: Nervis nailed a game-winning buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lift Davidson past a pesky Jonathan Alder squad. Nervis was the best athlete on the court and had a couple impressive takes to the basket where no Alder defender could contain him. I did like to see Nervis play in a half-court game for so much of it, it gave me a better evaluation of his game after seeing him mostly succeed in transition opportunities. This was a key victory for Davidson against a scrappy rival, and Nervis was a big reason why they were able to hold on.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="921809" first="Ayden" last="Parsons"], 6’0 PG Worthington Kilbourne 2022: Despite taking a loss, I thought Parsons was the best player on the court in the battle between Worthington Kilbourne and Reynoldsburg. Parsons is a pass first point guard with an old school toughness about him. Not the quickest or best athlete, but Parsons gets to the lane and finds the open teammate routinely. Parsons is a big reason why Worthington Kilbourne has remained competitive in the OCC after losing Ian Schupp to graduation.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1090148" first="Nyelle" last="Shaheed"], 6’5 PF Harvest Prep 2023: Shaheed led the host Harvest Prep Warriors to a comfortable victory over city rival Canal Winchester. Shaheed was dominant on the interior, finishing over the smaller Canal Winchester defenders. Shaheed is an impressive run-and-jump athlete, and his motor is always running. Harvest Prep once again looks like one of the top teams in Division III in Ohio.</p>